


A Little Breaking and Entering Never Hurt Anyone

by sgteam14283



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Breaking and Entering, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Pre-Relationship, Swimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 10:03:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19439194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sgteam14283/pseuds/sgteam14283
Summary: There are always Those Stories couples have. This is one of them.





	A Little Breaking and Entering Never Hurt Anyone

**Author's Note:**

> written for Day One of Mass Effect Relationship week over on Tumblr. This was really fun to write. Also hastily edited so please forgive any mistakes. Enjoy!

Glad that they had another day of shore leave on the Citadel, Kaidan made his way towards the higher-end of the station. His mother had a birthday soon and he’d been saving credits to get her a bottle of the Asari-inspired perfume that she’d made a passing comment about liking. “ _Granted her birthday’s three months from now, but who knows how long it’ll take to get to Earth._ ” he thought while hurring towards the shop since it was around closing time for most of the area.

Rounding a corner he nearly plowed into a human who’s back was turned, avoiding crashing into them at the last minute. “Sorry! Didn’t see you there.” 

“That’s okay Lieutenant.” Rose Shepard smiled as she straightened and turned to face Kaidan, letting her arms drop to her side. “I wasn’t paying attention either.” 

“Commander this...is a surprise.” Kaidan said, noticing the flash of Shepard’s omni-tool and then glancing at the door in front of them. They were in front of the Citadel swimming pool, which was clearly closed for the night cycle. “Going swimming?”

“You could say that.” Rose’s lips twitched in a smile. Looking at the still locked doors she said, “I came here once when it was open and hardly got a chance to get into the water.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, humans kept coming up to me to either thank me for the Skyllian Blitz or asking for an autograph from the first human Spectre. Or a photo. By the time I had to leave I got a nice tan but didn’t know what the water felt like. So I figured hey, why not try the place when I can actually get some swimming in.”

“And to try out the new decryption program Tali wrote for you.” Kaidan replied with a hint of amusement in his voice, remembering the conversation the two women had in the mess area before docking.

Rose shrugged, “It’s the beta version and she wants to see if there are any bugs to work out.” 

Looking at the Lieutenant, she quickly formed an idea. “Want to join me?” 

“Sure.” Kaidan found himself saying before he could really think about it. 

“Great! Just stand over there.” Rose broke into a smile and pointed to the column close to where Kaidan was. Pulling up her omni-tool, Rose quickly resumed the decryption program and tapped at the display every now and then. “Yes!” she hissed as the omni-tool glowed green after a few minutes and the door slowly slid open. “Thank you Tali.”

Stepping inside Kaidan was hit with the smell of chlorine mixed with other species safe chemicals and water. Making sure the door closed behind them he followed Shepard through the darkened hallway; past the payment counter and beach shop which sported floppy hats, sunglasses for Asari as well as humans-even a few that were clearly for vorcha and batarian, sunscreen, and the standard touristy beach shirts. 

The pool itself was giant, spanning the whole width of the complex and reminded Kaidan of the wave pools at Earth water parks; with small hot tubs dotted around the place and a separate lap pool for those who came to actually swim. Lounge chairs were spread out and Kaidan could dimly make out the art on the wall; nautical themes from each of the Council species. But he also picked out a few Terran references, mermaids and aquatic species long extinct.

A splash broke Kaidan out of his thoughts and he turned to see the Commander surface from the bottom of the pool. “How’s the temperature?”

“Not bad, why don’t you see for yourself.”

“Don’t have a swimsuit.”

“Neither do I. Improvised one.” 

There was an awkward beat as Kaidan processed what she meant and laughed as Shepard playfully splashed him.

“Aw, your clothes got wet.”

“Guess I’ll have to take them off so they can dry.” Kaidan replied as he took off his shirt and put it next to Shep’s. Pants, shoes, and socks quickly followed and Kaidan opted for the slower jump in compared to the bigger splash Shep made. “Although that fits her personality.” he thought as she swam over to him. 

“This is so nice.” Rose sighed as she tread water next to Kaidan. “I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to do this when I was on Earth.”

“I guess the Reds didn’t give you a lot of vacation days.” 

“Not many chances for a kid on the streets to get swimming lessons. Learned a year before I joined the Alliance” Rose replied, knowing Kaidan wasn’t going to judge her for her past. She didn’t hide it, but also wanted others to follow in her footsteps-trying to get the Alliance to sponsor a number of anti-gang or even just outreach programs so kids on the streets didn’t think their only way to survive was signing up for colony life or joining the Reds or Terra Nova. "What about you? Spend a lot of time swimming in Canada?"

Kaidan opened his mouth to respond but the sound of shuttles landing made him pause. Blue lights bounced off the walls and he realized that C-Sec had arrived.

“Shit.” Rose breathed, realizing they must have tripped a silent alarm when they’d entered.

Swimming to the side as quickly and quietly as they dared, they grabbed their clothes and moved farther into the complex. Hugging the shadows as they moved, Rose swallowed a yell when she stubbed her toe against the back of a chair.

“Here.” Rose whispered, motioning her head towards a counter that sold levio-snacks. “You first.” 

Kaidan nodded as he threw his clothes over and hopped the counter. “ _Shepard._ ” he hissed after turning around to see Rose activate her tactical cloak and disappear. “What are you doing?”

“Trust me.” Rose said loud enough for Kaidan to hear her. Not waiting for a response she ran around the deck for a few minutes before her omni-tool told her the cloak was running out, dashing back to the counter as the front door opened and she heard turian voices.

“-said the alarm’s over by the hot tubs. Probably some young troublemakers going for a off-hours swim.” 

Rose quietly scrambled underneath the counter, opposite of Kaidan and hastily pulled her shirt over her wet bra. Flashlights bounced off the tiles and they could hear a the C-Sec officers moving around.

“Got at least two sets of footprints here. Humans by the look of it.”

“Do a sweep and see if they’re still here. Water’s still moving so maybe we’ll get lucky.”

Rose clapped a hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh at the situation. “ _I wonder if they’ll believe I’m on Spectre business if we get caught._ ” she thought as the footsteps grew closer. 

“Footprints stop here.” Kaidan heard a turian call out, the voice uncomfortably close. Holding his breath, he glanced at Rose and saw that she was trying to either mask her breathing or trying not to laugh. Either way it set him off and he pressed a hand to his own mouth to stop them from getting caught.

“There are some more over here. Help me check it out.”

“Alright.”

Kaidan slumped in relief as the footsteps moved in the opposite direction of them. They were out of danger for the moment.

“They must be somewhere that we can’t access right now. Alarm’s reset so one of you sit outside and see if they don’t pop up after we leave.” 

“Yes sir.” 

Rose listened as the C-Sec officers finished their sweep and made their way toward the front, waiting a few minutes after they last heard them just in-case it was just an act to make them think they were leaving. Cautiously getting up, she motioned to Kaidan when she was certain the coast was clear. 

They quickly put on the rest of their clothes on and Rose flipped open her omni-tool, quickly typing out a message. “Wait here. I’ll disable the alarm so we don’t set it off again when we leave.” 

“But what about the one sitting outside the door? I think they’ll notice us.”

“Just asked Wrex to provide a distraction. Promised I’d pay his C-Sec fee and get him enough rychol to last our next deployment.” Rose gave Kaidan a quick smile before activating her cloak again. 

Kaidan waited against the wall as he heard the quiet _beep beep_ of the alarm resetting again. As he did, Kaidan couldn’t help but feel amused at the whole situation; breaking into a swimming pool, going skinny dipping with his commanding officer, and then hiding from C-Sec. “ _It certainly hasn’t been dull since meeting the Commander._ ” he thought with a smile as Rose appeared on the other side of the space, hugging the wall like he was.

Rose felt her omni-tool vibrate and she looked to see Wrex’s message as the sound of a shuttle revving up and the squawk of a siren activating filled the space. Signalling Kaidan as she moved, they slipped out of the complex and didn’t speak until they’d rounded the corner and were almost towards the elevators. 

Letting out a laugh, Rose placed a hand on Kaidan’s shoulder, “That was _so_ much better than going to see the new Blasto movie.” 

“I’m surprised that worked.”

“God, I needed that.” Rose took a breath to calm down and looked at Kaidan, feeling her cheeks heat up at the sight of his shirt clinging to his wet body. “We should get back to the Normandy and change before someone starts asking questions.”


End file.
